Beneath a Steel Sky
by DanoTheSlav
Summary: The sharp knock on the door to his office snapped him out of his thoughts and he mentally scolded himself for not paying attention. Thought the etched window on the front door he could see a silhouette of a fairly tall man. Could it be the first paying client in two weeks? Noir/Detective story featuring OC and LoL characters.


**Author's note:**

**Here is an idea for a story I started some time ago and never got too far with. It's supposed to be sort of a noir/detective story with some dark humor mixed in, all set in the beautifully disgusting city of Zaun. If you can spare a moment of your time let me know what do you think, is it worth investing more time into this thing?**

* * *

The rapping sound of his knuckles against the tabletop was the only thing that interrupted otherwise complete silence in his office. Mox hated days like this one, not only would he not get paid anything, but he also had to just sit here and stare at the empty wall in front of his desk. It was almost closing time, so his hopes of someone walking in through the door were next to nonexistent, still he decided to wait those couple of remaining minutes and then he would finally get out for a shot of something stiff. It was one of the rules he set for himself, drinking was okay, but he wouldn't do it in the office. The place already reeked of cigarete smoke bad enough, no need to add more stench to it.

His gray metallic hand softly ticked as it moved repeatedly up and down on the desk, like a complex mechanical watch. He used to hate the sound, but over time he got used to it. The thing didn't look too bad either, at least compared to the other stuff he has seen mounted on Zaunites. Five working digits and no added mumbo jumbo, he didn't have much to complain about really.

The sharp knock on the door to his office snapped him out of his thoughts and he mentally scolded himself for not paying attention. Thought the etched window on the front door he could see a silhouette of a fairly tall man. Could it be the first paying client in two weeks?

"The door is open, let yourself in," Mox shouted, his rough voice without a hint of worry as he gently touched the heavy pistol on his belt, confirming it was there should it be needed. One could never be too careful. "After all I always love it when people crawl in two minutes before closing time!" he finished and eyed his potential client. Before the door closed behind him he caught a brief glimpse of the words written on his office door.

Mox Perry – Detective Services

Right at the first glance, he could tell man was not Zaunite, while he seemed burly enough to pass as a grunt of a chem-baron, the lack of any augments and smooth skin, unaffected by Zaun's Grey clearly gave him away as an outsider. His clothes were not worth a second glance and looked exactly like something one would buy when he wanted to blend in. Mox felt as if this guy took extra care to appear as inconspicuous as he possibly could. Which made him all the more conspicuous to him.

"Mister Perry, I heard that you are something of a detective," the remark made Mox snicker.

"Yeah, I even have it written on my door. Your point, oh, mysterious stranger?"

The corner of the man's mouth twitched, but he kept a straight face and pulled up a chair for himself, seating himself opposite the detective.

"My point is that I would like to hire you for a job… obviously. I don't think it'll strike you as a surprise when I tell you I am not from around here."

"No really?"

_'Damn it, Mox, shove that sarcasm up your ass for now and be nice!'_ Mox scolded himself mentally, but the man, fortunately, didn't seem phased by his attitude.

"Yes, really. But as it happens I am looking for someone. Have you heard about this?"

A moment later a wrinkled piece of paper, Mox immediately recognized as a local newspaper, landed on his desk with the bombastic title 'Who is the butcher from Sump Works?' slapped right on the front page.

Of course, he had heard about it. While it wasn't uncommon that a corpse or two were found in the lower parts of Zaun, four dead bodies cut to ribbons was something a bit out of norm even for this place. The story seemed to ignite what little imagination news reporters down here had and new theories about the killer's motives and identity had been popping up for the past four days printed on everything that resembled paper and could be sold.

"Not sure if you could find anyone down here who hasn't heard about this," Mox admitted finally after taking a moment to eye the article. "What about it?"

"I believe the person I am looking for is the one behind these murders and as I said previously I am willing to pay you to track her down."

"So a woman did this?" he said, jabbing his finger into the newspaper. "And why, if I may ask, are you looking for her? I have a hard time believing you care too much about public safety."

"Why, well... what does it matter? I need to find her and that is about all you need to know about this," his gray eyes were without a hint of emotion and Mox doubted he could get any better answer out of him. "I can tell you what she looks like if that would help."

"Yeah, just a moment there. What was your name again sir?"

"Call me Gero," the small smile on the man's face gave away that he wasn't even trying to pretend the name was real.

"Okay, then Gero. Before we take this any further, my wage is..."

Soft clank answered his unfinished question as three small, golden cogs were laid on his desk.

"Half now, the other when you find her, plus expenses of course."

His eyes were now glued to the three pieces of gold that lay mere inches away from his face. He could finally pay the rent, damn, he probably wouldn't have to worry about rent for a whole year with what was on the table… Meanwhile, in the back of his head red flags were popping up at him from every direction. If something was too good to be true… a mysterious stranger walking in through his front door and throwing gold at him, was one of those things that nicely fit into that category. Then again, the money seemed well worth the risk.

"So, what does the girl look like?"

The sly smile that spread on Gero's face made him feel as if he just agreed to spread his legs for him.

"Almost as tall as I am, blue eyes, long, dark hair and obviously she is very skilled with blades. All I need from you is to track her down, nothing more. Once you have her I will take care of the rest."

Running a hand through his hair Mox gave it a brief thought. "I'll need to see the bodies, also the place where it happened…"

"Waste of time. The harvesting station where they took the bodies had already sold what was intact and processed the rest. As for the scene of the crime, I only found bits and pieces there."

Mox's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Looks like this guy really wasn't screwing around. It made him even more curious as to why the hell he wanted to find the girl so badly.

"Sounds like I could employ you if I ever needed a partner. Now define bits and pieces for me. What exactly did you find there?" Gero just shrugged.

"Some chunks of scrap the looters missed, lots of garbage, bloodstains, rats..."

"But nothing hers?" Mox interrupted him.

The question seemed to have caught Gero by surprise. "Something hers? Like what?"

"What do I know, it doesn't matter. Her favorite scarf, pocket mirror, diary, sock… anything really as long as she touched it at some point."

Mox had to suppress a smile when he saw the man's perplexed expression. Then to his relief, Gero reached into his coat's pocket and pulled out what seemed like a pink ribbon or rather a small shred of it. "This would do?"

"Depends, if it is belonged to her it could," he noted as he took the delicate piece of cloth. In his mechanical chem-tech hand, the delicate scrap of cloth looked completely out of place. It certainly didn't look like something any Zaunite would wear. With his curiosity piqued, Mox touched the ribbon, this time with his real hand and immediately felt the familiar pull in the back of his mind. It was still fairly fresh and from the experience, he knew the mark on it would last for at least another few days. The girl must have been wearing it daily.

He held back a smile. This job would be a piece of cake.

"I think this will do just fine."

"Do just fine? I don't see how that rag could help."

"Just forget about it, I can take it from here," Mox waved him off ignoring the man's confused expression. "Say you come two days from now, after lunchtime, I should already have something by then."

"You think you can find her in two days?"

"I said I might have something, but with a bit of luck… yeah, I think I will find her."

In reality, he knew that luck would have very little to do with anything, but he was already setting the stage so that he could later ask for a bonus. The good old _'I had to call in some favors'_ usually did the trick.

"Very well then," Gero stood up to leave, his expression unreadable. But before the door closed behind him he gave Mox one more look: "I do hope you will not disappoint mister Perry. Take care."

It was only when the door closed behind the man, that Perry finally allowed himself to relax. His attention slowly shifted to the three small golden cogs neatly stacked on top of his table. After a brief examination, he showed them into his pocket, already thinking about where he was going to spend them.

Noticing that the newspaper Gero, or whatever his real name was, showed him was still on the table, he once again took a look at the article about the murders. While the money was too good to pass, he couldn't shake off the feeling that this whole thing would bite him in the ass eventually. After not finding anything useful, he absentmindedly flipped the page and was greeted with a piece on the Noxian invasion of Ionia. He found it mildly amusing that a damn war didn't even manage to make the front page.

'_IS THE BACK OF IONIA BROKEN?_

_Our sources claim that two weeks ago forces of the Noxian army subdued the last remaining pockets of resistance at Placidium and thus the city (that is almost universally regarded as the capital of Ionia) fell completely under Noxian control. Reports of casualties vary dramatically and while some claim that the vastly outnumbered defenders of Placidium gave up practically without fighting, others speak of a terrible bloodbath. One way or another, it is hard to believe that Ionian troops still stand any chance to push Noxian invasion forces off their lands._

The article went on for two more pages, mentioning details that, for all Mox cared, might as well had come from the reporter's imagination. He found it hard to believe that a shitty local newspaper actually had someone writing them reports all the way from Ionia.

He lazily crumpled the newspaper and tossed it into the bin. Ionians and Noxians have been at it for almost a year now, but most Zaunites, himself included, did not care too much about the war even back when it began. For someone just trying to make it in the underbelly of Zaun, the Noxus orchestrated war seemed like something unimportant, distant, that wouldn't change anything about life down here no matter how it went down.

Grabbing his coat, Mox decided that today he didn't really feel like chasing a murderous woman around Zaun. Tossing the pink ribbon into a drawer he set course straight for the nearest restaurant. Might as well get something decent to eat... for the first time this month.

* * *

Two weeks.

For two weeks she has been stuck in this dump and still, she had nothing to show for it and her time was running out. With each passing day, she felt more and more hopeless as the news from home slowly trickled in. At times she felt like a coward. While her brothers and sisters were dying facing the Noxian onslaught, she was stuck in the depths of this wretched city looking for a miracle.

At times she felt like there was nothing to hope for anyway. Like a drowning man, she too was desperately clutching at the last straw she could see.

'_Even if you were there, you couldn't change anything,'_ she reassured herself, but it didn't improve her mood in the slightest. Making sure the large hood was in place and covering her face from prying eyes, she walked out of the small room she was renting and made her way out onto the dirty streets of Zaun.

She hated the way the air smelled down here, she hated how everyone who lived here looked either sick or partly turned into a machine, the omnipresent dull green lights made her constantly sleepy and…

… and she just couldn't imagine how people managed to live here. Even the gloomiest marshes of Ionia seemed like cheerful, joy-inducing places compared to this.

Still despite all of that, Irelia walked with a spring in her step, because after days of running into dead ends she finally had a minuscule semblance of a lead, or at the very least something that could eventually get her that lead. Namely, a small wrinkled piece of paper one man shoved into her hand when she got too annoying for him with all her questions. The letters on it were faded, but still perfectly readable.

Mox Perry – Detective Services

On the other side, there was an address with a small hand-drawn picture of a magnifying glass next to it. She knew it wasn't very much and a week ago she probably wouldn't even have considered trying it, but what was there to lose? In the beginning, she thought she could make sense of this place and find her way around on her own… that didn't happen. The worst part was she didn't even know where to start.

Thus, she found herself here, in front of an unassuming looking building with a faded gray facade, tucked away in one of the crooked streets of Zaun. Involuntarily her fingertips tapped at the blades suspended around her waist. While hidden under her baggy clothes, just knowing they were there made her feel better. She already knew just how dangerous this city could be.

The old door opened with a screech and she found herself in a dimly lit hallway with doors on both sides and a spiraling staircase in the corner. After a short while of wandering around, she finally stumbled upon a plain-looking door with Mox Perry – Detective Services, written on it. This was it. She knocked and waited, when no response came she tried once more, each knock loudly echoing in the otherwise silent hallway.

Already feeling like she was just wasting her time here, she tried the door handle and to her surprise, the door swung open. Curiously Irelia peeked inside, only to find herself in a rather small office. One table, some chairs, a small dirty window…

"Why don't you come on in?"

Startled she felt her blades twitch under her robe and just barely she managed to keep them from lunging forward. To her left, in the corner of the office was a small, worn-looking sofa she didn't notice before and sitting on it was a man who as of now had a pistol aimed straight at her head and an expression that clearly showed he just woke up.

"And close the door behind you," he added, his rough voice perfectly level.

For a moment they just stood there, Irelia's blue eyes locked with the man's green ones. She wasn't least bit afraid, there was no doubt in her mind that she was fast enough to avoid his first shot and he wouldn't live long enough to fire again and yet… it didn't feel to her like he really wanted to shoot her. After a moment she decided to play along.

"Do you often threaten your potential clients?" Irelia asked nonchalantly as she closed the door. That got a smirk out of the man.

"Can you blame me? This isn't exactly a good neighborhood madam," he remarked and slowly walked over to his desk. While the gun never left his grasp, it wasn't aimed at her anymore.

"If you say so. Still, I think you should put that thing aside. I would like to talk to you without feeling like a criminal."

It was only then that she noticed the arm in which he held the pistol was actually a complex looking prosthesis, slightly larger than a normal hand would be. The outside of it was made of black metal covered in scratches, but underneath she could see an assortment of transparent tubes filled with green liquid. Otherwise, the man appeared almost surprisingly mundane… as far as Zaun standards went that is. Unkempt, being the word she would use to describe him. His black hair was shaggy and so was his beard and there were already hints of wrinkles on his face. Overall however the man looked nowhere near as worn down as did the majority of the people she has seen down here. Really the only thing that stood out aside from his hand were his unnaturally green eyes, similar in color to the liquid used in his chem-tech arm.

And those eyes were now boring into hers.

"I'd love to, talk, but I just don't like it when I can't see who I am talking to."

While Irelia was hoping it wouldn't come to this, after a moment of thought she decided that the chances of this man recognizing her were next to nonexistent. In one fluid motion, she pulled the hood off her head and made few steps closer to the man. "Happy now?"

"Ecstatic," he remarked his voice dripping with sarcasm, but to his credit he did holster the gun. "The name is Mox Perry, but I suppose you figured out that much. How about you take a seat and tell me how I can help you madam."

"I am looking for someone," Irelia said but ignored the offered seat opposite the detective. If the man was bothered by the fact she hadn't introduced herself, he didn't let it show. "An old man who arrived in Zaun two months ago. The problem is I don't know where to start, nor do I have much to go by."

"Yeah, that's how it usually goes in this line of work. Tell me what you do know then."

She considered her options. Just how much she could actually tell him without saying too much? "He was probably traveling with a fairly large contraption... and I don't think he wants to be found."

Mox kept looking at her as if urging her to continue, but when she didn't he leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, that isn't much. Does this man have a name? What does the machine do? What does it look like? What does the man look like? Does he know anyone in the city? These are the sort of things I have to know to even get started."

Mox fired question after question and Irelia was beginning to think that coming here was a bad idea. She hoped she would be able to avoid these questions, the more the man would know the worse for her things could get. And for him as well. On the other hand, if she wanted his help she knew that she had to give him something to work with. She just had to sidestep the more dangerous details, that's all.

"His name is Zilean and he is an Ionian. As far as I know a couple of months back, he left Ionia when Noxians started to push for the northern lands. I don't think he's ever been to Zaun."

"Why did he leave Ionia?"

"I can only assume he couldn't bear the sight of his land being ravaged," Irelia answered coldly.

"So, he came to Zaun, the most cheerful city in all of Runeterra for vacation, makes sense."

A tense moment of silence set in. The detective was staring at her with a blank expression as if trying to figure her out. She assumed he had already put two and two together and figured that she was from Ionia, but there was little she could do about that.

Suddenly Mox averted his gaze from her.

"Do you intend to kill him if I find him for you?"

The question took her by surprise, even more so because it was delivered in such a matter-of-fact sort of way as if the man asked her if she thought it was going to rain today.

"I am asking because if you do, you'll have to pay extra," he added nonchalantly.

"No, there will be no killing. All I need is to talk to him."

She really had to try hard to keep the disgust from showing on her face. Just like that with that simple sentence, he showed that he was just like the rest of this putrid city. Willing to sell his own mother as long as the price was right.

"Five hundred bronze cogs total. Two hundred now, two hundred when I am done and one hundred if you want me to forget about this whole thing once we split ways. And obviously, no refunds."

"Three hundred. Fifty now, the rest when you finish the job."

The truth was she didn't even have those three hundred cogs, let alone five hundred. She wasn't too worried about that though, the moment he found Zilean for her she could just walk away. It's not like he could force her to do pay him, even if he tried.

The detective opened his mouth as if to object, but promptly closed it shut flashing her a small smile.

"You know what for your blue eyes... fine, I'll help you find your friend. Even though three hundred cogs is me practically doing charity work, I suppose it's better than no deal."

From the way Mox jumped at her deal Irelia could only guess that she should have offered less. Even those fifty cogs were more than she could afford to spend at the time. The deal was done though. Slowly she pulled a small pouch out of her pocket, careful not to unintentionally reveal any of the blades. She quickly counted off fifty bronze cogs, each roughly the size of a button and covered from both sides with intricate symbols. They were the currency most commonly used in Zaun and as she quickly learned after coming here, they were what Zaunites above all else.

"When can we get started?"

Mox's attention instantly snapped from cogs back to her. "Well, _WE_ aren't starting anything darling, I am. No offense, but babysitting is not my kind of thing. Especially not when it's my neck that's on the line if you screw up."

"Don't worry I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you. _Darling,_" Irelia spat out, keeping her voice low.

For a moment Mox said nothing, obviously deep in thought.

"You really want to tag along for this?"

"Yes."

"Well, in that case, I have a few conditions."

"Which are?"

"Quite simple really. First and foremost, you do what I tell you when I tell you, no ifs or buts. Second, you don't talk to anyone and third and last, I want to know your name, calling you miss all the time would quickly get annoying."

"Fine, I agree. As for the name you can call me Kiina."

When she said the last word, she almost regretted picking that name, it was her grandmother's and it immediately brought back memories she didn't want to deal with now. But what was done was done.

"A fake name is better than no-name I suppose, Kiina," Perry said after a moment and got up from the chair. "Come on then, I already have an idea where we could start."


End file.
